Sophie Blaney Plate Tectonic Case Study PortfolioEARTHQUAKE:New Zealand:Epicentre was 25 miles west of Christchurch and the focus wasshallow at 6 miles4:35am 4 September 20107.1 magnitudeConservative plate margin Pacific Plate slid past the AustralianPlate in the opposite direction (causing thousands of aftershocks)September 2010:Causes: Movement of Pacific and Australian plates Potential seismic lensing (huge amount of energy reflecting off hard basalt rock) 4 September 2010 until 4 September 2011, there were around 9,000 aftershocks and earthquakes As many as 100 faults have been identified around New Zealand (some as close to 12 miles from central Christchurch) On Boxing Day (26 December 2010) there was a large aftershock of the September earthquake of magnitude 4.9 and 7 miles deepImpacts:Primary ­ One person died of a heart attack and 2 were seriously injured Brick chimneys toppled through tile roofs One of the few cases of serious injury was caused by a falling chimney Christchurch hospital forced to used emergency generators Historic stone churches were badly damaged, although both the Anglican and Catholic cathedrals survived with minor crackingSecondary ­ Schools were closed for about two weeks after the earthquake, due to damage to school land and buildings, lack of power or water, transport difficulties and frequent aftershocks Soil liquefaction caused flooding, damaged buried pipes and building foundations Warnings issues not to drink running water because of contamination from broken sewage pipesResponses:

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Short term ­ St John's ambulance service was operational within half an hour of the earthquake Ensuring people were safe from dangerous buildings Media helped alert the rest of the country to search and rescue for survivorsLong term ­ Estimate of the cost of the earthquake was $1.…read more

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Responses:Short term ­ Care was given to the most vulnerable people International aid provided in the form of money (around $7 billion) and aid workers Zoning of areas to classify damage and cost of repairs Chemical toilets provided to over 30'000 residents The Canterbury Art Gallery which had been designed to be earthquake proof survived and was turned into an emergency response centreLong term ­ Building insurance claims paid were around $900 million Temporary housing provided to those who moved out of their…read more

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Destructive plate margin African plate is subducted below the continental Eurasian plateCauses: Movement of African and Eurasian plates Multiple microplates in the Mediterranean result in frequent seismic activity Several aftershocks following the main earthquakeImpacts:Primary ­ 309 people were killed and over 1'600 injured Thousands of building were damaged or destroyed (even some which were considered earthquake proof such as the university) Collapse of medieval buildings and cathedral Collapsed bridge caused water pipe to break Landslides and rock falls were triggered by earthquake…read more

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Conservative plate margin North American Plate sliding past the Caribbean PlateCauses: Both the North American and Caribbean plates move in the same direction, but one moves faster than the other Haiti is on a strike slip fault that runs off a destructive plate margin to the north Aftershocks occurred in the following days, including a magnitude 5.…read more

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The airport struggled to cope with the number of planes trying to fly in and unload aid Bottled water and water purification tablets were supplied to survivors Field hospitals were set up and helicopters flew wounded people to nearby countries $100 million in aid given by the USA and $330 million by the European Union Around 810,000 people placed in aid campsLong term ­ Haïti was already reliant on international aid for over 30% of national GDP even before the earthquake 6 months after…read more

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On 1 May doctors and the Red Cross medically evacuated seriously injured people by helicopter to inflatable hospitals Video cameras on long flexible poles and detecting CO2 concentration helped locate survivors in rubbleLong term ­ Relief efforts were delayed by Nepalese government insistence on routing aid through the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund and Emergency Operation Centre Asian Development Bank provided $3 million to Nepal for immediate relief efforts as well as $200 million for rehabilitation UK gave £73 million (combined from government and…read more